A Computer-Assisted Analysis System for Mathematical Programming Models and Solutions


Book Description

Welcome to ANALYZE, designed to provide computer assistance for analyzing linear programs and their solutions. Chapter 1 gives an overview of ANALYZE and how to install it. It also describes how to get started and how to obtain further documentation and help on-line. Chapter 2 reviews the forms of linear programming models and describes the syntax of a model. One of the routine, but important, functions of ANALYZE is to enable convenient access to rows and columns in the matrix by conditional delineation. Chapter 3 illustrates simple queries, like DISPLAY, LIST, and PICTURE. This chapter also introduces the SUBMAT command level to define any submatrix by an arbitrary sequence of additions, deletions and reversals. Syntactic explanations and a schema view are also illustrated. Chapter 4 goes through some elementary exercises to demonstrate computer assisted analysis and introduce additional conventions of the ANALYZE language. Besides simple queries, it demonstrates the INTERPRT command, which automates the analysis process and gives English explanations of results. The last 2 exercises are diagnoses of elementary infeasible instances of a particular model. Chapter 5 progresses to some advanced uses of ANALYZE. The first is blocking to obtain macro views of the model and for finding embedded substructures, like a netform. The second is showing rates of substitution described by the basic equations. Then, the use of the REDUCE and BASIS commands are illustrated for a variety of applications, including solution analysis, infeasibility diagnosis, and redundancy detection.




Mathematical Modeling and Optimization


Book Description

Computer-based mathematical modeling - the technique of representing and managing models in machine-readable form - is still in its infancy despite the many powerful mathematical software packages already available which can solve astonishingly complex and large models. On the one hand, using mathematical and logical notation, we can formulate models which cannot be solved by any computer in reasonable time - or which cannot even be solved by any method. On the other hand, we can solve certain classes of much larger models than we can practically handle and manipulate without heavy programming. This is especially true in operations research where it is common to solve models with many thousands of variables. Even today, there are no general modeling tools that accompany the whole modeling process from start to finish, that is to say, from model creation to report writing. This book proposes a framework for computer-based modeling. More precisely, it puts forward a modeling language as a kernel representation for mathematical models. It presents a general specification for modeling tools. The book does not expose any solution methods or algorithms which may be useful in solving models, neither is it a treatise on how to build them. No help is intended here for the modeler by giving practical modeling exercises, although several models will be presented in order to illustrate the framework. Nevertheless, a short introduction to the modeling process is given in order to expound the necessary background for the proposed modeling framework.




Harvey J. Greenberg


Book Description

This volume chronicles the high impact research career of Harvey Greenberg (1940-2018), and in particular, it reviews historical contributions, presents current research projects, and suggests future pursuits. This volume addresses several of his most distinguished hallmarks, including model analysis, model generation, infeasibility diagnosis, sensitivity analysis, parametric programming, energy modeling, and computational biology. There is also an overview chapter on the emergence of computational OR, and in particular, how literature venues have changed the course of OR research. He developed Computer-Assisted Analysis in the 1970s and 80s, creating an artificially intelligent environment for analyzing mathematical programming models and their results. This earned him the first INFORMS Computing Society (ICS) Prize for "research excellence in the interfaces between operations research and computer science" in 1986, notably for his software system, ANALYZE. In 1993, he wrote the first book in the Springer OR/CS Series entitled A Computer-Assisted Analysis System for Mathematical Programming Models and Solutions: A User’s Guide for ANALYZE. He applied OR methods to CS problems, ranging from using queuing theory for optimal list structure design to using integer programming for bioinformatic database search. He also applied CS to OR problems, ranging from super-sparse information structures to the use of compiler design in ANALYZE. This book can serve as a guide to new researchers, and will report the historical trajectory of OR as it solves current problems and forecasts future applications through the accomplishments of Harvey Greenberg.




Feasibility and Infeasibility in Optimization:


Book Description

Written by a world leader in the field and aimed at researchers in applied and engineering sciences, this brilliant text has as its main goal imparting an understanding of the methods so that practitioners can make immediate use of existing algorithms and software, and so that researchers can extend the state of the art and find new applications. It includes algorithms on seeking feasibility and analyzing infeasibility, as well as describing new and surprising applications.




Advances in Sensitivity Analysis and Parametric Programming


Book Description

The standard view of Operations Research/Management Science (OR/MS) dichotomizes the field into deterministic and probabilistic (nondeterministic, stochastic) subfields. This division can be seen by reading the contents page of just about any OR/MS textbook. The mathematical models that help to define OR/MS are usually presented in terms of one subfield or the other. This separation comes about somewhat artificially: academic courses are conveniently subdivided with respect to prerequisites; an initial overview of OR/MS can be presented without requiring knowledge of probability and statistics; text books are conveniently divided into two related semester courses, with deterministic models coming first; academics tend to specialize in one subfield or the other; and practitioners also tend to be expert in a single subfield. But, no matter who is involved in an OR/MS modeling situation (deterministic or probabilistic - academic or practitioner), it is clear that a proper and correct treatment of any problem situation is accomplished only when the analysis cuts across this dichotomy.




Multi-Objective Programming and Goal Programming


Book Description

Most real-life problems involve making decisions to optimally achieve a number of criteria while satisfying some hard or soft constraints. In this book several methods for solving such problems are presented by the leading experts in the area. The book also contains a number of very interesting application papers which demonstrate theoretical modelling, analysing and solution of real-life problems.




Computer-Assisted Analysis and Model Simplification


Book Description

Computer-Assisted Analysis and Model Simplification deals with problems associated with the implementation, understanding, and management of large-scale, computer-resident models. This book focuses on five general research areas—structural modeling, qualitative economics, mathematical programming systems, relational databases, and combinatorics. In these topics, this compilation discusses the scope of computer-assisted analysis and model, structural models and graph theory, and qualitative stability of matrices and economic theory. The strong sign-solvability and weak satisfiability, automatic identification of embedded structure in large-scale optimization models, and query systems for linear programming models are also deliberated. This publication is a good source for students, specialists, and researchers interested in computer-assisted analysis and model simplification.




Computing Tools for Modeling, Optimization and Simulation


Book Description

Computing Tools for Modeling, Optimization and Simulation reflects the need for preserving the marriage between operations research and computing in order to create more efficient and powerful software tools in the years ahead. The 17 papers included in this volume were carefully selected to cover a wide range of topics related to the interface between operations research and computer science. The volume includes the now perennial applications of rnetaheuristics (such as genetic algorithms, scatter search, and tabu search) as well as research on global optimization, knowledge management, software rnaintainability and object-oriented modeling. These topics reflect the complexity and variety of the problems that current and future software tools must be capable of tackling. The OR/CS interface is frequently at the core of successful applications and the development of new methodologies, making the research in this book a relevant reference in the future. The editors' goal for this book has been to increase the interest in the interface of computer science and operations research. Both researchers and practitioners will benefit from this book. The tutorial papers may spark the interest of practitioners for developing and applying new techniques to complex problems. In addition, the book includes papers that explore new angles of well-established methods for problems in the area of nonlinear optimization and mixed integer programming, which seasoned researchers in these fields may find fascinating.




Mathematical Models for Decision Support


Book Description

It is quite an onerous task to edit the proceedings of a two week long institute with learned contributors from many parts of the world. All the same, the editorial team has found the process of refereeing and reviewing the contributions worthwhile and completing the volume has proven to be a satisfying task. In setting up the institute we had considered models and methods taken from a number of different disciplines. As a result the whole institute - preparing for it, attending it and editing the proceedings - proved to be an intense learning experience for us. Here I speak on behalf of the committee and the editorial team. By the time the institute took place, the papers were delivered and the delegates exchanged their views, the structure of the topics covered and their relative positioning appeared in a different light. In editing the volume I felt compelled to introduce a new structure in grouping the papers. The contents of this volume are organised in eight main sections set out below: 1 . Abstracts. 2. Review Paper. 3. Models with Multiple Criteria and Single or Multiple Decision Makers. 4. Use of Optimisation Models as Decision Support Tools. 5. Role of Information Systems in Decision Making: Database and Model Management Issues. 6. Methods of Artificial Intelligence in Decision Making: Intelligent Knowledge Based Systems. 7. Representation of Uncertainty in Mathematical Models and Knowledge Based Systems. 8. Mathematical Basis for Constructing Models and Model Validation.




Tutorials on Emerging Methodologies and Applications in Operations Research


Book Description

This volume reflects the theme of the INFORMS 2004 Meeting in Denver: Back to OR Roots. Emerging as a quantitative approach to problem-solving in World War II, our founders were physicists, mathematicians, and engineers who quickly found peace-time uses. It is fair to say that Operations Research (OR) was born in the same incubator as computer science, and it has spawned many new disciplines, such as systems engineering, health care management, and transportation science. Although people from many disciplines routinely use OR methods, many scientific researchers, engineers, and others do not understand basic OR tools and how they can help them. Disciplines ranging from finance to bioengineering are the beneficiaries of what we do — we take an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving. Our strengths are modeling, analysis, and algorithm design. We provide a quanti- tive foundation for a broad spectrum of problems, from economics to medicine, from environmental control to sports, from e-commerce to computational - ometry. We are both producers and consumers because the mainstream of OR is in the interfaces. As part of this effort to recognize and extend OR roots in future probl- solving, we organized a set of tutorials designed for people who heard of the topic and want to decide whether to learn it. The 90 minutes was spent addre- ing the questions: What is this about, in a nutshell? Why is it important? Where can I learn more? In total, we had 14 tutorials, and eight of them are published here.